iRiver to ship third 'video iPod' in July

This one runs Linux

Reg Kit Watch iRiver is set to ship the second of its three 'video iPod' player families in July - the Linux-based Personal Multimedia Player (PMP).

The company will ship two models: the PMP-120 and PMP-140. Both offer the same 3.5in, 16-bit LCD display, but the first will contain a 20GB hard drive while the latter has a 40GB unit installed.

iRiver PMP-120

Both PMPs are set to ship a month after iRiver makes its first video players, the H320 and H340, available to Japanese buyers in June.

And the company is on course to ship its Microsoft Personal Media Center-based PMC-120 and PMC-140 players later in Q3.

iRiver PMC-120 (left) and H320 (right)

While the H300 series is essentially an iPod with a colour display and video playback facilities, the PMP (and the PMC) are more tablet-like devices. The PMP-120 measures 13.9 x 8.4 x 3.1cm and weighs 277g.

The unit supports a wide range of formats, including MP3, WMA, ASF, Ogg Vorbis and WAV for audio; JPEG and BMP for still photography; and MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, AVI, Divx 3, 4 and 5, Xvid and WMV for video.

There's an integrated FM tuner and microphone, along with line-in and TV-out ports. Like the H300 series, the PMPs will use the USB On the Go system to allow the device to download digital photography and other files directly from cameras and USB disks without the need for a PC host.

The players will ship with a removeable rechargeable battery capable of sustaining up to 16 hours of audio or five hours of video playback.